A CAVERSHAM man is celebrating victory today after a five-year battle with health bosses over who should pay for his elderly mother's nursing home care.

A CAVERSHAM man is celebrating victory today after a five-year battle with health bosses over who should pay for his elderly mother's nursing home care.

Record producer David Gooch won the support of health ombudsman Ann Abraham who criticised the former Berkshire Health Authority for wrongly insisting 90-year-old Edith Gooch should sell her Kidmore Road home to pay her care bills.

Ms Abraham ruled in her first report today that the authority, now Thames Valley Health Authority, was wrong to assess Mrs Gooch as ineligible for NHS funding.

She upheld Mr Gooch's complaint that the authority had failed to understand the funding system and had not changed its rules in line with a key court ruling in 1999 that health authorities must pick up the tab if the needs of chronically sick patients were primarily health needs and not simply age-related.

Mrs Gooch, who died in November 2000, was blind and suffering from Alzheimer's disease when she was admitted to Austen House in Lower Earley in 1998.

Mr Gooch was presented with a £15,000 annual bill for her care.

However Reading Borough Council agreed to pay for Mrs Gooch while her son raised the cash on the understanding he would pay the money back once he had sold Mrs Gooch's house.

The council is now pursuing Mr Gooch through the High Court for a total care bill of more than £45,000.

He said: "Without any prior discussion I was told Reading council would provide funding for my mother's nursing care ‘while her house was on the market'. We never had any intention of selling at that time."

He added: "It was pig-headed. There has been a deliberate attempt not to pay and even when my mother was on her deathbed we were refused NHS palliative care.

"They are still coming after me for the money. I think Reading Borough Council ought to be negotiating with Thames Valley Health Authority for the money directly.

"The reality is that patience is a virtue and it has taken me nearly five years to get a result."

The health ombudsman's report could make a difference to hundreds of families faced with selling their homes when elderly relatives are denied the right to free nursing home care.

Ms Abraham said: "In each case we have found the complaints to be largely justified. There is evidence that the Department of Health's guidance has been misinterpreted and misapplied by some health authorities and trusts."

A spokesman for Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority said: "We have established a process for dealing with the recommendations and these will be discussed at the next meeting of our board on March 5."

Council spokesman Chris Branagan said: "The council's understanding is that the Ombudsman has advised Berkshire Health Authority to reconsider the criteria it adopts when assessing whether to fund cases such as that of Mrs Gooch.

"Until it has formally declared that it will pay for the care she received, the council has no alternative but to continue to seek payment from Mr Gooch."